


Borderlands

by cloud_five



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors, xxxHoLic
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 15:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3773470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloud_five/pseuds/cloud_five
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rajura encountered the Dimension Witch when she was young and travelling. They stumbled upon each other at the edges of the Netherworld. She must have sensed his nature immediately, because her smile was too crystalline as she chatted with him, jokingly asking for directions and declaring that she was looking for her boyfriend. “He’s a tricky magician who runs away a lot. Maybe he ran this way.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Borderlands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queenhaggard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenhaggard/gifts).



He met the Dimension Witch when she was young and traveling. They stumbled upon each other at the edges of the Netherworld. She must have sensed his nature immediately, because her smile was too crystalline as she chatted with him, jokingly asking for directions and declaring that she was looking for her boyfriend. “He’s a tricky magician who runs away a lot. Maybe he ran this way.” Rajura played his part, making his manner indignant, asking who she was and how she dared to enter his master’s realm. Perhaps, later, when she was older, more wise and less lost, she might have asked herself what a general of a dark realm was doing at the very edges of it, but at the time her inexperience coupled with fear and a bit a bravado prevented her from seeing past the illusion of how he behaved and the words he said.

When she did finally attack him he was shocked at her power. She would be a force one day. He could sense it like he could sense moon phases in the human world. But her power was not made for combat, and he had matured into his own before she was born. The battle was fascinating but ultimately brief—still, he had been forced to drop his blustering façade during the skirmish and it didn’t please him at all. He was ready to carve her heart from her ample bosom. She, too, was no longer laughing, but her situation was more dire, suspended as she was like a butterfly from the thousands of threads he’d woven around her. Her eyes had gone narrow and hunted, pupils constricting with survival instinct.

“If you kill me, that tricky magician will be upset with you, and he’s just as strong as he is annoying,” she warned.

“If I let you live, my master will tear my mind from its foundations. Forgive me if your little wizard pales in comparison,” Rajura snarled, annoyance blunting his speech.

She had the nerve to raise a perfect eyebrow at him. Then her demeanor shifted, expression stretching like a cat as she purred. “Let me live, and I will grant you a wish.”

He laughed in her face. “Woman, I have everything I wished for.”

She didn’t even blink. “Yes, you do. And all wishes have their price.” They studied each other for a long moment. Rajura fingered one of his curved blades. It would be easy to shut her mouth and deliver her heart to Arago. But he couldn’t deny that he was unsettled and that the presence he vaguely detected around her heart was considerably more disconcerting than his belittling comment about her magician implied. She seemed to sense his indecisiveness, and her red lips pulled into a knowing smirk. “Your lord doesn’t know I’m here. He can’t sense me if I don’t want him to, which means he never has to know about me. Oh, he could force you to tell him, but how would he know to ask? Besides, you really don’t want to have to explain yourself if a strong wizard comes around and makes trouble.”

Rajura gave up. Arago would soon notice his absence. He disliked the witch, but he wanted her gone more than he wanted her dead. He was always interested in the development of the truly strong. And she wasn’t lying when she talked about the magician, so perhaps her man did have power enough to be a problem. He could use this. He bared his teeth in an imitation of Anubisu, and it worked. She shrank back, seemed a little more panicked, more likely to agree to anything, very young. He growled, “In exchange for removing my spell,” he indicated the threads binding her, “you’ll not return, nor permit your magician to travel to this world.” She opened her mouth to reply but he stepped forward into her space, cutting her off. “I’m sure a smart woman like you has ways to obscure this place. We do not encounter travelers often and I don’t expect any more after this.” Rajura was completely, utterly serious and he let her see it. She nodded once. “In exchange for letting you leave alive, one wish. Although I doubt you will ever have anything I want.” He raked his gaze pointedly up and down her body, expression dismissive. It was petty, but her subsequent offence took some of the sting out of giving her what she wanted.

She huffed. “People like you will always want more.” Her gaze was piercing. She looked like she might fight him again, (and if she hadn’t had other priorities, she might have) but she stopped herself. “Very well, I accept your terms. Your warrior’s oath binds you, just as our contract binds me. Should you have need of your wish, you will be able to find me. But remember, Gen Masho— truth is always revealed in the end. That’s not coincidence, it is only hitsuzen.” She looked at him like she knew the shape of his future. Rajura hated her in that moment.

Rajura broke the spell and banished her in the same instant. Later, in the shadows between worlds, he heard whispers of a witch who could grant any wish if you paid the price, who moved between dimensions and had mastery over time itself. He noted the rumors and would have been amused with his investment if he could feel anything at all. He slowly forgot the witch’s promise.


End file.
